Safe at Home

3 Easy Ways to Save Money on Groceries

If your grocery bill seems through the roof lately, there are steps you can take to lower your costs. Though most of us are eating more meals at home, panic buying has also set in. The kind that makes you grab more food than you need while paying less attention to price. While your grocery store may be temporarily out of something, there is no shortage of food in this country. Don’t overload your cart with more than you need. But, there are other reasons your food bill may seem unusually high. Here are 3 steps you can take to save cash on groceries while doing something good for your body and the earth during April’s Earth Month:

1. Reduce Waste
If you’ve been tempted to stockpile food while staying at home, it’s time to rethink this strategy. Americans throw out an average of 31 – 41% of the food we purchase. In addition to throwing your hard-earned dollar in the trash, food waste drains the environment. Rotting fruits and vegetables, the top food wasted, uses water and contributes to ethylene gas, methane and CO2 emissions, all of which are harmful for our environment.

Here’s how you can load your plate with fruits and veggies and other healthy foods without throwing anything in the trash:

1. Use a shopping list to prevent impulse buys.
2. Buy frozen foods. Freezing locks in the nutrition value of the food indefinitely and you can use frozen foods at your convenience.
3. Keep fruits and vegetables fresh or for longer period of time with products that delay ripening.
4. Don't automatically throw food out by the use by date. This is a measure of quality and not food safety. Assess your food to ensure it is still safe (smell your meat, poultry, fish and dairy, make sure fruits and vegetables are not molded).
5. Freeze fruits and veggies that are about to rot. Separate them on a wax paper lined sheet and freeze them (this step prevents them from freezing together in a large clump). Once frozen you can bag them together (in a tight zippered plastic bag with no extra air in it).

2. Choose Bulk Bins / Jars
Bulk bins let you buy as little or as much of an ingredient as you need. This is especially useful for spices. When your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of a spice you won’t use again for a long time, you can get 1 teaspoon for pennies vs. getting an entire jar. Bulk bins also let you try small amounts of food you may not be familiar with such as black rice or buckwheat groats. This can help expand your taste buds and nutrition intake. As a bonus, bulk bins use less packaging.

3. Make More and Freeze Half
If you make larger batches of soups, stews and other dishes and freeze half, you won’t be eating the same leftovers for days on end. Plus, you’ll have a dish ready to go when you really don’t feel like cooking. This means less impulse buying or less money spent on food ordered in or to go. Many dishes freeze well. Stews are perfect for this because the texture doesn’t change much when frozen and reheated. Grain dishes, lasagna, veggie pizzas, burritos, quiche and more can also be frozen.

Now is the perfect time to take a close look at what you have in your cabinets and refrigerator and plan your shopping trips accordingly. Our food supply chain is strong in this country. If certain foods you were hoping to pick up on your last grocery trip were missing from store shelves, use this as an opportunity to try a substitute. Most recipes are open to modification and don’t need to be followed exactly.

Putting healthy meals on the table shouldn’t be one more headache on your to-do list.

Save money by cooking meals at home instead of ordering takeout. If you don’t love cooking or following elaborate recipes, you can still put a healthy and tasty meal your plate with these top tips:

1. Don’t automatically throw out food after its “best by” date. This date ensures the best quality but does not mean the food is unsafe to eat.
2. Cut fresh fruit that is about to go bad and freeze it (separately on wax paper and once frozen you can toss it all together in a plastic bag – this will help it from getting frozen in one big clump). Frozen fruits and veggies can be used in soups, stews, smoothies and more.
3. Use a Slow Cooker. Slow cooker recipes are often very forgiving – you can toss in extra leftover ingredients including legumes such as peas and beans, as well as grains such as rice and pasta. Slow cookers save you time as well since you don’t need to watch them constantly.
4. Batch cook. Make meatballs, meatloaf, turkey chili or other meals in bulk and divide them into portions. Freeze some for later.
5. Make healthier baked goods at a fraction of the cost by making your own flour. Rolled oats can be ground up in a food processor into flour. You can also make almond flour, pecan flour and many other types of flours by putting blanched almonds or pecans in a food processor or blender at high speed. Though oat flour can be substituted 1 for 1 in most recipes, double check other substitutions.
6. Make your own nut butter. Some nuts such as peanuts (really a legume) can be blended and made into nut butter. Others may need oil added or they may need to be roasted first to bring out the oil.
7. Look for substitutions. Buttermilk, sour cream and many other ingredients may only be used for 1 recipe. Consider using a combination of lemon juice or white vinegar + milk instead of buttermilk; Greek yogurt can be used in place of sour cream.
8. Use dried beans. These take hours in a traditional slow cooker but dried beans can be cooked in about 20 minutes in a newer pressure cooker. Once cooked substitute some of the ground turkey or beef in recipes with beans. You’ll add flavor, texture and great nutrition value to meatloaf, burgers and more.

Information provided by Marie Spano, Atlanta Braves Team Nutritionist.